Hutchinson Family Singers Web Site
The new Geocities ads on the right side of your browser window can be pushed offscreen by clicking on the tab that's marked by a couple
On Sunday, October 16, abolitionist John Brown and his followers made an ill-fated raid on the armory at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. United States forces quickly retook the armory, and Brown was charged, tried, and convicted for murder and treason. Brother John had friends who helped plan and finance the raid, and he knew Brown personally.
On December 1, the night before Brown was hanged, John's company sang at the town hall in Barre, Massachusetts. He asked the audience to meet him at the steps of that building at the hour of the execution. The following evening, the crowd assembled at the appointed time and John's family sang to them.
Finding it would be impossible to obtain the keys of any of the conservative churches, [ said John ] I had arranged with some eight likely boys, of whom my son Henry was one, to see to it that every church bell was rung at a specified hour. They went off in couples, and every one managed to get access to a bell-rope. As the gathering dispersed the bells tolled mournfully for about five minutes.
"Finding it would be impossible to obtain the keys": John W. Hutchinson (1896, 1:365).
An article, "Bard Talks Love," Boston Post, August 26, 1905, p. 1 col. 3, p. 12 cols. 1-3, lists "Bells of Barre" among John's better-known songs.
From this time forward, through John's late years, every now and then a man named John G. Crawford would surface to retell the story of the ringing of the Barre church bells at the time of John Brown's death. Strange to say, it seems to be this same man who spoke at John Hutchinson's funeral, though the Boston Record account gave the name as George G. Crawford. Evidently the "Bells of Barre" tale became one of the most enduring aspects of John W. Hutchinson's legend.
Page 9
At the start of 1860, Asa B. Hutchinson's concert company was on its way to Maine.
The Hutchinsons' Concert, at the Lyceum, Wednesday evening,
This same notice reported that they sang often against slavery. A song about John Brown was greeted with hisses from a few of their listeners. Hissing was not going to stop Asa Hutchinson from singing his songs of freedom - in fact, it seemed to have quite the opposite effect. "Asa," wrote Lizzie, "must sing antislavery."
During January, they toured through the cities and towns of Maine. An announcement of a planned concert in Bangor reported that they "have been making a very successful tour this winter - giving great satisfaction wherever they have sung." But now they had Maine weather to deal with, and it did not permit them to give their opening concert in Bangor until February 13. "The selections," said the Whig and Courier, "were of a pleasing character - and both songs and singing were characterized by that sweet and beautiful melody which, with the touching sentiment of the pieces, ever constituted one of the greatest attractions of the Hutchinson Family."
On the 16th, the Belfast Progressive Age reported that Asa's company had been drawing excellent houses through the state. A few days later, the Rockland Gazette ran a sparkling notice, calling little Freddy a "juvenile genius." "They have the noble satisfaction of knowing that their music has been of the character which makes the world better for hearing it."
Lizzie added another song to her repertoire - John C. Baker's "My Trundle Bed; or, Recollections of Childhood." This became, and would continue to be, one of her most requested numbers.
John's company sang in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey. Then they had a long stay in New York. Fanny was not well, but - surprisingly - Abby joined the group. Not much later, they were hot on the concert and political trail. John and Asa threw themselves into the presidential campaign of Abraham Lincoln with their usual enthusiasm. John compiled two campaign songbooks - the Connecticut Wide-Awake Songster and Hutchinsons Republican Songster for the Campaign of 1860.
"The Hutchinsons' Concert, at the Lyceum, Wednesday evening": Portsmouth (NH) Morning Chronicle, January 6, 1860.
"Asa, wrote Lizzie, must sing antislavery": Quoted in Philip D. Jordan, Singin' Yankees (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1946), 220-221.
"An announcement of a planned concert in Bangor reported that": "Local and Maine Items," Bangor (ME) Daily Whig and Courier, February 9, 1860, p. 2 col. 4.
"The selections, said the Whig and Courier, were of a pleasing character": Bangor (ME) Daily Whig and Courier, February 14, 1860, p. 2 col. 4.
"On the 16th, the Belfast Progressive Age reported": "Concert by the Hutchinsons," Belfast (ME) Progressive Age, February 16, 1860.
"A few days later, the Rockland Gazette ran a sparkling notice": "The Hutchinsons," Rockland (ME) Gazette, February 23, 1860, p. 2 col. 3.
Freddy got such great notices in these years that calling him a juvenile genius must have been no exaggeration.
This Rockland Gazette notice contains one of the best lines in all the literature on the Hutchinson Family, and we shall be returning to it, all in good time.
"Lizzie added another song to her repertoire": John C. Baker, "My Trundle Bed, or, Recollections of Childhood: Ballad," first line of text: "As I rummag'd thro' the attic, List'ning to the falling rain" (New York:
"John's company sang in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey": Evidently John's company missed much excitement, as they stopped in Lynn near the end of a major, historic shoe-workers strike.
"Fanny was not well, but - surprisingly - Abby joined the group": Fanny: Viola Hutchinson Campbell, Memories of a Busy Life (Plymouth, Mass.: privately printed
"John and Asa threw themselves into the presidential campaign": For more on the use of songs and songsters in this campaign, see Cheryl T. Taranto, "Political Songsters for the Presidential Campaign of 1860" (Ph.D. diss., Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Baton Rouge, 1994).
Professor Jordan thought it was during the Midwest tour by the trio of Jesse, Judson, and John that the Hutchinsons first met Abraham Lincoln. See Philip D. Jordan, Singin' Yankees (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1946), 225. Still, they had earlier opportunities in Washington, when Lincoln was a Member of Congress and roomed in the same boarding house as their friend, Joshua R. Giddings. This seems the more likely time for the first meeting between the Hutchinsons and Lincoln.
It is a measure of Jesse Hutchinson's reputation as a topical-song writer, and of the Hutchinsons' association with Abraham Lincoln, that the campaign song, "Lincoln and Liberty," is attributed to Jesse about half the time, though he died seven years prior to the Lincoln campaign.
The other half of the time, "Lincoln and Liberty" is credited to F. A. B. Simkins. From the point of view of one who is interested in 19th-century American music history, Simkins is quite a shadowy figure and devilishly hard to research. Yet one can place him and members of his family reasonably securely in Madison County, Ohio, and also in Franklin, Pickaway, and Union counties in Ohio. Perhaps an Ohio historian could help flesh out the picture of Simkins. He seems to have been a newspaper man around the time of the 1860 presidential campaign, having become connected with the Circleville (OH) Herald in December 1858. See Pickaway County, Ohio History, accessed May 26, 2005. It is apparent that he is the same person as the
Sometime later, F. A. B. Simkins and his wife, Elizabeth Taylor Simkins, divorced. Elizabeth Simkins and several of the children are relatively easy to track after this, while
Page 10
Folks in the Northeast must have thought the Hutchinsons were everywhere. Asa covered the New England states, and made a quick trip through Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana. When he came back, his daughter Abby joined his company.
On Saturday, October 20, 1860, Andrew B. Hutchinson died in South Boston. The main Hutchinson family collections contain little about his life over the previous ten years or more, except to note that he experienced chronic health problems.
Andrew is best remembered as the brother who boarded Judson, John, and Asa, and probably Joshua, in Boston, when they came to town to advance their musical educations and careers. And it was Andrew who provided Asa with his first instrument. He was a baritone who sang bass, and his musical influence on Asa, his youngest brother, was probably considerable.
During the campaign that had resulted in the election of Lincoln, [ said John ] I had been very industrious in his behalf. Wherever I was, in railroad trains, at hotels, at the door of concert halls, on the street - in fact, at any place where I could get a group of hearers, I had been urging the election of "Honest Abe."
The Hutchinsons reused many old songs in the Lincoln campaign. Judson's "Jordan" may have seemed particularly fitting, since two of the four people named in it - Stephen A. Douglas and Edward Everett - were the candidates of their parties for the presidency and vice-presidency, respectively.
"Asa covered the New England states, and made a quick trip": Philip D. Jordan, Singin' Yankees (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1946), 225-226.
All the dates I have for Asa's itinerary during the 1860 campaign are for appearances in eastern New England. It is blank, though, for the first three weeks of October, so this must be the time Philip Jordan had in mind when writing about Asa's trip into the Midwest.
"When he came back, his daughter Abby joined his company": For an early reference, see "Pawtucket and Vicinity," Pawtucket (RI) Observer, October 25, 1860.
A favorite photograph of Abby Hutchinson [ Anderson ] is one where she appears with her parents and brothers, above the caption, "The Tribe of Asa: Dennett, Abby, Asa, Lizzie, Fred," in the picture section of Carol Brink, Harps in the Wind: The Story of the Singing Hutchinsons (New York: Macmillan, 1947).
"We were again in harness, said John, singing with Sister Abby": John W. Hutchinson (1896, 1:366-367).
"Walter Kittredge was touring through western New York": "Favorite War Song," Boston Herald, April 4, 1897, p. 28 cols. 2-4.
"It is universally conceded, said the Times, that the vote": "The Election To-Day"
"On Saturday, October 20, 1860, Andrew B. Hutchinson died": "Death of One of the Hutchinson Family," The Liberator, Boston, n.d., in Item 49v, Ludlow Patton's Hutchinson Family Scrapbook, Wadleigh Memorial Library, Milford, New Hampshire.
Brother Andrew was typically described as a successful businessman. But it is known that he had two spells of financial difficulty. The earlier instance seems quite vague. It is referenced briefly in Dale Cockrell, ed., Excelsior: Journals of the Hutchinson Family Singers, 1842-1846 (Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1989), 176. The later incident is very concrete. "Misfortune came to him in the California years," said John. "He chartered a vessel and sent it full of goods to that country, and it was never heard from." See John W. Hutchinson (1896, 2:239). Andrew's public announcement of his return to the grocery business may signal the end of the episode described by John. See "The World Is My
"During the campaign that had resulted in the election of Lincoln": John W. Hutchinson (1896, 1:371).
Page 11
After the election, John gave concerts in the New York area. Viola said the "Tribe of John" had established a reputation of its own by then. On November 22, they sang for
John began 1861 at Dawnwood, being nursed back to health by Abby. When his company resumed their concerts in and around New York, not only was he well again, but so was Fanny; and Abby was still with the group.
On February 21, President-Elect Lincoln left New York by train for Washington; and John and company went to the depot in Jersey City to witness the exciting scene there. "The train not being made up on his arrival at the station," said John, "he sat in an open barouche a short time, surrounded by his friends. Meanwhile, we were in a balcony of the building. During the interval of waiting we struck up a
John intended to witness the unfolding drama further, so he went to Washington. He and a friend arrived in the capital on the day of Lincoln's inauguration. "The word was soon passed around," said John, "that General Scott had placed his forces on many of the roofs of the buildings along Pennsylvania Avenue, with guns loaded, ready to discharge upon the mob if it should show itself disposed to interfere with the progress of the procession. The soldiers could be seen peering over the edges of the roofs."
Like other abolitionists, it pained John to hear Lincoln state in his address that he would faithfully enforce the laws of the land, including the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Act. "The remark filled me with consternation, but I did not then consider, as afterward, certain facts. He was surrounded by the bitterest traitors, who had dogged his steps from his home in Illinois to the capital, putting him all the time in danger of assassination. I was later convinced that his announcement of the obligation resting upon him rendered him comparatively safe, and enabled him to take the oath of office."
"Viola said the Tribe of John had established a reputation": Viola Hutchinson Campbell, Memories of a Busy Life (Plymouth, Mass.: privately printed
"The singing of John and Abby, said the New York Times": "The Hutchinson Concert," New York Times, November 23, 1860, p. 4 cols. 5-6.
"When his company resumed their concerts in and around New York": E.g., "The Hutchinson Family," New York Times, January 31, 1861, p. 7. col. 5.
Abby Patton's public activities in 1860 and into 1861 were far more numerous and physically taxing than those of any other year since her last regular tour with her brothers in 1850. It seems likely she was an early patient of New York's Remedial Hygienic Institute and its proprietor, Dr. George H. Taylor, a movement cure practitioner. She would have received exercise and massage and benefited from what today is called patient teaching.
"On February 21, President-Elect Lincoln left New York by train": Fanny was back in Lynn. According to Viola, the company included, in addition to herself, John, Henry, and a fourth singer. See Viola Hutchinson Campbell, Memories of a Busy Life (Plymouth, Mass.: privately printed
"The train not being made up on his arrival at the station," said John": John W. Hutchinson (1896, 1:372-373). See also Viola Hutchinson Campbell, Memories of a Busy Life (Plymouth, Mass.: privately printed
At another point in his book, John mentioned Lincoln recognizing him. Recognizing John W. Hutchinson and company may not have been one of the more difficult tasks Abraham Lincoln ever faced. John's appearance was singular.
"The word was soon passed around, said John, that General Scott": John W. Hutchinson (1896, 1:374).
"The remark filled me with consternation, but I did not then consider": John W. Hutchinson (1896, 1:374-375).
The Fugitive Slave Law loomed large for people on both ends of the slavery question, and it was occasionally right under the noses of many Americans as the 1854 Anthony Burns case in Boston shows. But it was far from the only major issue the new administration faced.
According to an extensive page two article in the November 17, 1862, New York Times, American participation in the international slave trade was at its peak when Lincoln took office, though such trading in slaves had been illegal according to United States law since 1808. The Times article said, "The inauguration of the present Administration, with principles avowedly opposed to the increase of the African population in this country and of extending Slavery, although coming into power with a gigantic rebellion on its hands, had time, nevertheless, to displace officials derelict of their duty, and appoint others competent and disposed to energetically enforce laws for which they were appointed."
Page 12
After successful concerts in Philadelphia, John's company went to New York early in April for more engagements. He had arranged for the noted basso Karl Johann Formes to sing with his company, and he engaged a hall that would seat
Information about Asa's activities through this period has been elusive, though we know that his company was active from favorable notices of a trip going north through Vermont late in January. Freddy was still the star of the show. Then on Wednesday, May 22, 1861, Ellen Chace Hutchinson was born to Asa and Lizzie. She would be familiarly known as Nellie and nicknamed "Daisy."
"The storm was fast gathering," said John, "and finally we read on the bulletin boards, 'Our flag is dishonored! Fort Sumter in Charleston has been fired upon this very day!'" "It was folly to attempt to give popular concerts amid such excitement in the city." The furor that John witnessed was being felt throughout the land. "Very singular what a change has come over us within a short time," said William Lloyd Garrison some months later. "They who have complained of hard language being thrown at the slaveholders are now throwing cannon-balls and bomb-shells at them."
As the fighting began, the Tribes of John and Asa, Brother Joshua, Walter Kittredge, and other acts were in great demand to sing at mass meetings in support of the Union. They were singing before large, enthusiastic audiences. In later years, much of the legend of the Hutchinson Family centered on their activities during the American Civil War.
"Then on Wednesday, May 22, 1861, Ellen Chace Hutchinson was born": A small photograph of Nellie, in a group with her family and others, appears in Item 81r, Ludlow Patton's Hutchinson Family Scrapbook, Wadleigh Memorial Library, Milford, New Hampshire. Nickname Daisy: Oliver Dennett Hutchinson, "The Hutchinson Family - 'Tribe of Asa,'" typescript, March 12, 1936.
"The storm was fast gathering, said John, and finally we read": John W. Hutchinson (1896, 1:376).
"Very singular what a change has come over us within a short time": "Mr. Garrison's Lecture: "The Abolitionists and Their Relations to the War," New York Times, January 15, 1862, p. 8 cols. 1-5.
"As the fighting began, the Tribes of John and Asa": Gordon Hall Gerould, "'Tenting on the Old Camp Ground,' and Its Composer," New England Magazine 20 (August 1899): 724-725.
For perhaps the most notable example, see "League for the Union," New York Times, April 21, 1863, p. 1 cols. 1-6, p. 8 cols. 1-4; esp. p. 8 col. 3. This event involved John's family.
Behold the day of promise comes, full of inspiration The blessed day by prophets sung for the healing of the nation Old midnight errors flee away, they soon will all be gone While heavenly angels seem to say the good time's coming on
The good time, the good time, the good time's coming on The good time, the good time, the good time's coming on |
E-Mail Us
E-Mail Us |
Webmaster |
Table of Contents |